Set the Fire to the Third Bar
by Dramione84
Summary: Drabbled musings. Set in the war, she is a girl on the run, he is a boy trapped in a cellar. Both pray that something picks them up and sets them down in the arms of the other. #suggestionsunday Prompt: I pray that something picks me up and sets me down in your warm arms. Lyric belongs to SnowPatrol, characters belong to JK Rowling, Plot belongs to me.
1. Chapter 1

There is nothing in this world that prepares you for the trauma of realising you are nothing but a child conscript in an adults war

* * *

Now she thought of it, and the irony of that was the realisation that she rarely thought these days, she had ceased marking time. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, it was all meaningless now.

* * *

Time no longer held any meaning. She simply existed in moments.

* * *

Existing in moments, she mused, was reminiscent of slipping in and out of consciousness

* * *

She found a biro in the dust of the track. She couldn't recall the last time she had used a muggle pen. Suddenly she felt an overwhelming sense of grief and it was almost too much to bear. Surely it wasn't rational to feel an emotion so strongly for simple things such as ink, quills and brand new parchment.

* * *

Rumagging through a bin on the outskirts of a muggle town she found a muggle newspaper. The headlines held no interest to her. She lacked the cultural context. The date was 23rd October. She had been on the run for 2 months. She had no point of reference for when she was separated from the others.

* * *

She found herself doodling on the edge of the muggle newspaper.

* * *

She unfolded the only sheet she had left. It was the only important one. It had the date on it. Across the top she had written

"And miles from where you are, I lay down on the cold ground and I pray that something picks me up and sets me down in your warm arms".

* * *

She no longer had the muggle pen. She had cried when she realised she had lost it.

* * *

Her delicate fingers smoothed over the cursive of her script. Anyone reading this would think it was about Ron she thought.

* * *

Cold metal pressed against his skin and he felt two things: The way his scalp tightened with her grip on his hair and the warm trickle of blood down his cheek.

* * *

Crazy didn't even begin to describe this woman in the black corset and heeled boots.

* * *

He ran his fingers across the markings of the wall. Others who had been here before him had found ways to mark it to count time. He chose not to think in numbers

* * *

In the cold dank darkness of the cellar he attempted to preserve his sanity by thinking of synonyms for crazy. Insane. Kooky. Mad. Nuts. Nutty. Wacky. Berserk. Cookoo. Lunatic.

* * *

Potty, he smirked at that one.

* * *

Psycho. Screwball. Batty. What was that muggle phrase about bats?

* * *

Bats in the belfry.

* * *

"Crucio" she cackled gleefully. He ground his teeth in an effort to not scream. He soiled himself instead.

* * *

He had moved on from synonyms and attempted to think of adjectives for the woman in the corset and heeled boots. Pureblood. Fanatic. Mental.

* * *

He mused ironically that "Aunt" was no longer an adjective he associated with her.

* * *

There was no point of reference for him to calculate the amount of time that had passed since he had been thrown in the cellar.

* * *

Whispering was coming from outside the cellar door. Wormtail was never good at keeping his mouth shut, he thought drily. He strained to hear what was being said. He couldn't discern very much of the discussion. All he knew was snatchers had caught them.

* * *

He sobbed in the corner at the guilty realisation that he had briefly felt a flutter in his heart that he might see her once more. He hated himself for not hoping she hadn't been caught.


	2. Chapter 2

She stumbled down the gorse covered hillside. She could feel the icy wind burning her face, causing her eyes to water and her nose to run. She needed to find some shelter.

* * *

Lying on her back, she stared up at the rocky outcrop. She now understood the meaning of the phrase hell on earth.

* * *

Picking her way through the rubbish that lay scattered in the abandoned building she found another muggle newspaper. She still had the scrap of the previous one. All that was left of it was the date and the script. She looked at the date. January 15th. She had now been on the run 5 months.

* * *

She stared at the rocky outcrop. She remembered reading Jane Eyre and wondered if she might die out on the moor

* * *

Taking out the scrap of paper with the script written on it, she whispered, her voice carrying across the moor. "Draco"

* * *

He had given up with his word games, losing his sanity now seemed a more preferable option

* * *

There had been no more talk of the capture by the snatchers. He had started to hope it wasnt them afterall.

* * *

Somewhere there was a dripping sound. He couldnt discern the exact location or source.

* * *

Wormtail opened the door to the cellar, he turned his head but made no move to get up off the cold floor. A blonde, vaguely familiar girl, was dumped unceremoniously at the foot of the stairs. She was barely conscious and stared back at him. Belatedly he realised the girl was Luna.

* * *

He felt inexplicable levels of rage but had no outlet for it. If he had a wand he would have hexed the shit out of everything in sight.

* * *

If he had been able to kill Dumbledore, he wouldn't be in here, he thought wryly.

* * *

The rage passed. He stared at the wall. Neither spoke.

* * *

He snapped his eyes open as the panicked screaming reached an hysterical end. Bellatrix was cackling as she threw curses in every direction.

* * *

Wormtail opened the door and two ragged boys were thrown in. They were filthy and so thin their clothes hung off them. The dark haired boy had a swollen face. They were almost unrecognisable. Almost

* * *

He tried to make himself as small as possible in the corner. Potter and Weasley spoke only to each other and Luna. No one spoke to him.


	3. Chapter 3

She wasn't entirely sure where she was. She couldn't recall exactly where the border was

* * *

The jumper she wore would have been at least two sizes too big even if she wasn't suffering from malnourishment. It swamped her but it kept her warm, although she hated taking things from abandoned houses.

* * *

Staring up at the night sky she watched the first flurries of snow appear. If it wasn't for circumstance it would have been romantic.

* * *

She tried not to finger the scrap of paper too much now. It was wearing away.

* * *

Knees hunched, she tried to keep warm as best she could.

* * *

Back pressed up against the dilapidated farm building, she hoped the disillusionment charm would hold. The hooded figures slowly picked their way through what was left of the building.

* * *

Face to face with the dark haired man with sneering features, she held her breath

* * *

A muggle dog barked as it came bounding across the field of heather ahead of its owner. The hooded figures disapperated. She let go of her breath.

* * *

Hushed whispers were all the three exchanged. He didn't bother to listen.

* * *

He tried not to think of her, because when he did, he felt nauseated with worry. When he didn't, his heart ached.

* * *

Screaming had ensued upstairs. The three in the opposite corner all huddled together. He didn't even raise his head off the cold stone floor

* * *

Wormtail entered the cellar, even as a man, he scurried about. Grabbing the girl by her hair, he dragged her towards the door. Potter tried to stop him but without a

wand he couldn't protect himself from the crucio.

* * *

Luna wasn't returned. Weasley looked ill. Potter looked haunted. Draco wondered if any of them would survive.

* * *

The screaming seemed to last forever this time. Rough hands picked him up. He didn't register who's

* * *

He wasn't used to light or people or…..anything. He was aware of it all but didn't react.

* * *

The soft warm bed was a strange feeling. He wondered if he would be more comfortable on the floor.

* * *

A woman with red hair came in and smiling sympathetically, she placed a bowl of soup on the table next to the bed. His gaze followed her out the door that clicked shut quietly. He stared at the wall.

* * *

He knew she wasn't here. She would have come to him if she was. A small tear escaped his eye. He didn't bother to brush it away.

* * *

The woman returned. She was speaking. He didn't hear her. He only thought of _her_

* * *

A man this time, he knew this man. A man in a slate grey cardigan. He sat with him in silence. Just sat there.

* * *

The man in the cardigan remained.

* * *

"Where is she?" his voice was gravelly. He was unaware of how long it had been since he had last spoken

* * *

"No one knows, Draco" the man in the cardigan sighed.


	4. Chapter 4

Curled up under the corrugated sheeting that had once formed part of the roof, she slept fitfully, her hand clasped tightly to her wand.

* * *

Snow flurries slowed her progress. The howling winds marred her visibility and chilled her to the bone

* * *

She hadn't eaten in 3 days.

* * *

Something startled her awake. Somewhere in the distance she heard a twig snap. She pulled herself further under the fallen tree and listened.

* * *

Footstep could be heard treading slowly across the pine forest floor. She willed her heart to stop beating so loudly in her eyes for she feared it was audible to anyone approaching her hide.

* * *

Eyes wide in fear, she watched the hooded figures continue their path through the forest.

* * *

When they were faint specks on the distance she let out a breath she wasn't aware she had been holding.

* * *

A lone tear slipped down her cheek. She didn't move to brush it away.

* * *

"I miss you"

* * *

The man in the cardigan sat silently in the chair. Draco stared at nothing

* * *

"How long?"

* * *

"Today is 2nd February"

* * *

He tried to make sense of what he had been told. His mind was trying to force a realisation

* * *

"Bellatrix attacked the school just before the start of term. She was with me that night"

* * *

"She didn't come to the safe house. We don't know why"

* * *

He didnt want to ask his next question

* * *

The red haired woman came in with plate of food. Draco forced himself to sit up. He had been given potions to heal his wounds and replenish his blood. Physically he was ok. It was his mind that didn't want to comply.

* * *

"Why are you helping me?"

* * *

"No one knows the exact nature of what transpired between the two of you, but Hermione was able to warn me before she disappeared that the attack was coming. She told me someone she trusted had passed key information to her. When we found you in the Manor locked in the cellar with Harry, Ron and Luna, it was clear to me who had risked everything for her. Hermione wouldn't trust you lightly but clearly she does. That's enough for me"

* * *

The man in the cardigan was gone now. Draco placed his feet on the floor and braced his hands on the bed. Tentatively he stood up and moved to the desk in the corner of the room.

* * *

He couldn't remember the last time he had held a quill in his hands

* * *

He blew lightly across the ink to dry it, then traced his fingers lightly over the measured script.

He had written only one line.

"And miles from where you are, I lay down on the cold ground, and I pray that something picks me up and, sets me down in your warm arms"


	5. Chapter 5

She grasped her wand with her right hand, and clutched the remains of the scrap of paper with her left

* * *

Crouching in the undergrowth, she listened for sounds that would betray the enemies location.

* * *

Hooded figures slowly made their way round the village, pausing every few feet to look behind discarded carts or peer through broken windows

* * *

She waited in her little hide until nightfall

* * *

With an uncharacteristic uncertainty of her own meticulous calculation, she waited for the right moment.

* * *

Stealing herself for a moment, the cacophony of her pounding heart resounding in her ears, she gathered all her Griffindor courage and with her goal in sight, made a run for it

* * *

The door opened.

* * *

A younger version of the red haired woman entered and sat down

* * *

She smiled at Draco and asked him how he was. Her concern unnerved him

* * *

Draco had no words. He put the book he had been reading down on top of the parchment that bore the line he traced with his fingers every day thinking of her

* * *

Staring up at the ceiling, he listened to the raised voices from another part of the house

* * *

The front door slammed shut and hurried footsteps sounded the length of the hallway. The door opened and a young feminine voice cried out into the night "RON!"

* * *

Early morning sunlight streamed through the curtains that gently moved with the breeze coming through the window he had left ajar. There was no mistaking the boy who sat in the chair as Draco's eyes came into focus.

* * *

"Malfoy"

* * *

There was no sneer. No smirk. No aristocratic drawl. His inflection bore no malice, no resentment, no air of superiority. It was simple. Poetic almost in its acceptance of the hear and now. The equality of their enmity exchanged for one of sympathy.

* * *

"Potter"

* * *

He turned onto his back, afraid of the emotion that engulfed him and uncertain of the reaction that its admittance would provoke.

* * *

"I love her"

* * *

Silence filled the room, palpable and disconcerting.

* * *

"I know"


	6. Chapter 6

The caterwauling charm was activated the moment she crossed the village threshold. She pounded on the door as the ear-splitting sound reverberated around the village.

* * *

Hooded figures ran about trying to discern the source of it's activation

* * *

Her small fist pounded the door harder as she silently begged it to open before she was caught

* * *

The door flew open and a gruff man snatched her up as she fell into the opening

* * *

"I need you to contact the Order"

* * *

"The Order's Finished"

* * *

Dirty fingers picked apart the remains of the dry cakes that crumbled as she brought them to her lips

* * *

She flattened her back against the cellar wall praying once again the disillusionment charm would hold

* * *

Calloused hands held the gruff man, wands raised to his throat

* * *

A feminine scream erupted from underneath the floorboards

* * *

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Little Miss Mudblood hiding in a cellar like the filthy little bitch she is"

* * *

Fingers laced in her matted hair, pulling her scalp taught, an almost sensual caress of cool metal along the line of her jaw.

* * *

Defianant hazel eyes met soulless black saucer-like pupils

* * *

"Let's go somewhere where we can have a little chat, girl to girl"

* * *

He stared at the ceiling, saying nothing

* * *

Potter remained in the chair

* * *

"Lupin told me what you did. Without that information we wouldn't have known where to start looking for the Horcruxes"

* * *

The red haired woman placed a bowl of soup on the table next to the bed. She turned to Harry. "When the time comes, you won't be able to go alone". Harry nodded.

* * *

"Stupefy" "Reducto" "Protego" "Expelliarmus"

* * *

The red haired woman stared out the window, watching Lupin and Tonks dualing with Harry and Draco on the beach

* * *

Lupin patted Draco on the back, nodding to Harry as he came into the kitchen. He gave the red haired woman a light squeeze as he took the cup of tea from her hands "Thanks Molly"

* * *

Harry and Draco settled into an unspoken routine: Breakfast, training, lunch, training, dinner, planning, sleep.

* * *

The kitchen door slammed. A young man stormed down to the beach. Eyes blazing, he glared at Draco.

* * *

"Ron! Welcome back" Tonks greeted him with a fierce hug

* * *

Weasley regarded him with a quiet distrust. Harry mediated between the two.

* * *

He stared up at the ceiling, sleep eluding him. When he did sleep, he dreamed of her. Sometimes he woke in a pool of his own sweat, screaming her name. The

younger red haired girl would come and sit with him.

* * *

Raised voices in the kitchen woke him. The red haired girl opened the door, poking her head inside. Her eyes told him her unspoken question. He sat up and patted the bed.

"I'm scared we won't find her" she whispered

* * *

The voices in the kitchen had ceased. Footsteps came along the hall. The door opened

* * *

"Come to bed, Ginny"

* * *

Raised voices woke him from a restless sleep, the door flew open

* * *

Lupin, Tonks, Harry and Weasley came barging into the room

* * *

"Aberforth managed to send his Patronus. Bellatrix caught her hiding in the cellar. She's taken them to Malfoy Manor"


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Trigger: Scenes of torture. Rated M for a reason.**

Her screams reverberated around the drawing room as she lay sprawled out across the floor, the woman in the black corset and heeled boots on top of her cackling maniacally

* * *

"Crucio"

* * *

Cool steel pressed against her delicate flesh, warm blood trickling down her inner thigh

* * *

"Crucio"

* * *

She was hoarse from screaming, her throat dry and lips cracked

* * *

"TELL ME WHAT I WANT TO KNOW!"

* * *

The tip of the wand dug into the flesh of her arm and the blistering heat was almost too much to bear

* * *

"WHERE IS MY NEPHEW, MUDBLOOD BITCH?"

* * *

She screamed as she felt the letters carved into her skin

* * *

"CRUCIO"

* * *

Staring at nothing, she watched the woman in the black corset and heeled boots twist and turn in her maniacal rage, screaming orders at hooded figures

* * *

She felt a tear prick the corner of her eye but refused to allow it to drop. Her eye glistened with its presence until it dried there

* * *

"CRUCIO!"

* * *

Vaguely she wondered what it would feel like to die

* * *

Remus was the first to apparate to the boundary of the Manor. The others arrived in quick succession. Weasley was the last to arrive.

* * *

Draco drew the wand Remus had leant him for training. Weasley glared at him before turning to Remus "You sure you're ok with this?"

* * *

"She trusts him, that's enough for me"

* * *

Draco drew the wand across his hand, opening up the skin, his crimson blood glistening in the moonlight

* * *

He felt the cold steel against his hand as he gripped hold of the gate, his blood coating the rail

* * *

The ancestral wards overruled the ones put in place by the woman in the black corset and heeled boots and he dryly thought "Malfoy trumps Black"

* * *

Hooded figures skirmished with the 5 would-be rescuers

* * *

"Stupefy" "Reducto" "Protego" Expelliarmus"

* * *

"AVADA KEDAVRA"


	8. Chapter 8

She watched as the forceful curse hit the unsuspecting woman in the black corset and heeled boots. She had seen the killing curse before, but never seen it cast with such force. A part of her brain registered fear

* * *

She heard a familiar voice scream her name

* * *

Warm arms enveloped her, pulling her close

* * *

"Draco?"

* * *

She wasn't sure she had made an audible sound

* * *

Wetness coated her cheeks, soft, soft was the feeling on her lips

* * *

Belatedly she realised they were both crying as they kissed

* * *

He pulled her into his lap, arms wrapping gently around her, lips pressed to her forehead.

* * *

Holding her close, he felt her body rack with sobs of relief

* * *

The sun was rising, the light coming through the windows. He couldn't recall a time before now when this drawing room had ever been illuminated quite like this.

* * *

The light that bathed her warmed her skin as she lay in his lap, his arms holding her close

* * *

"I love you"

* * *

"I love you too"

* * *

Remus, Tonks, Harry and Weasley approached her, their touches soothing, their hushed voices gentle

* * *

He felt a hand clasp his shoulder and give a gentle squeeze

* * *

"She'll be ok mate"

* * *

"Thanks Ron"

* * *

Lips pressed to her temples, he heard her whisper

"I pray that something picks me up and sets me down in your warm arms"

* * *

Fin


End file.
